Published Sunday, March 16, 2003
mission in Pittsburgh
homeless, hungry
Herald Staff Writer
A higher power led a Shenango Valley native to his Oct. 1 appointment as executive director of Light of Life Ministries in Pittsburgh.
David Bugher (pronounced Be-you-er), of Pittsburgh, is the third leader in the 50-year-old mission's history of helping the homeless and hungry.
"I owned a business and was looking to buy another," said the son of Norman and Betty Bugher, Hermitage. "God had different plans and wanted me in ministry."
The 1972 University of Pittsburgh alumnus, whose father was press foreman for many years with The Herald, began his professional life by selling pharmaceuticals for two years for Hoffman-LaRoche in the Pittsburgh area.
After earning a master's degree in business administration in 1976 from Loyola College in Baltimore, Bugher spent about 12 years as a commercial lender for banks in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
The Farrell High School alumnus moved from the Baltimore and Washington area in 1987 with his wife, Christine, and their two sons. The family settled in Lancaster, Pa., where they purchased a Sylvan Learning Center franchise.
Bugher, 52, said he first considered mission work in 1993 upon selling the learning center. "I started looking at the possibility, and then became director of development -- which is fund raising -- for Water Street Rescue Mission," he said.
After working for eight years in the Lancaster-based mission, Bugher went on to work for a time at Bethesda Mission in Harrisburg.
His duties with Light of Life entail a wide variety of responsibility. "The number one job is to make sure everything we do is to help the people we serve," he said. "We help people without homes and without hope."
Seeing people who thought they had no chance at a reasonable future get back on their feet is what he deems the most satisfying part of his job. "They think there's no chance," he said. "We recognize God hasn't given up on them or anyone. The neatest part is graduation, when they basically tell their own stories. The 'be-fores' are pretty amazing. There is pain in their lives that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy."
Anyone in his position would say balancing priorities would be the most difficult chore, said Bugher. "There's always something to deal with, and three directions in which we can go." Finding funds in the current economic climate also is a challenge for the mission, he said.
Bugher and his family live on Pittsburgh's North Side. "We don't live far from the mission," he said.
You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Lisa Mehler at: lmehler@sharonherald.com